This invention relates to an electronic card game scoring device which is used to eliminate tedious and error-prone mental calculation in scoring and recording card games.
Many multiple player card games involve complex rules and detailed scoring procedures. A list of such games includes: cribbage, gin rummy, hearts, partnership pinochle, bridge and contract bridge. An example of the complexity of the scoring involved in such card games can be found in the game of cribbage where a player has points added or subtracted from his score depending on the hand or depending on various instances of game conduct or misconduct such as misdealing.
The following is a partial list of rules for scoring during the hand play or "pegging" portion of the game of cribbage. The "count" portion of each hand follows hand play, and employs basically the same rules:
-2 points for various misdealing penalties,
+2 points to the dealer for His Heals (jack appearing as the starter card), this must be scored before the dealer plays a card,
+1 for the player whose latest play makes the sum of cards played thus far less than 31 while opponent is unable to play any card that when added to previously played cards does not exceed 31 during a game,
+2 for the player who scores exactly 31 within a game,
+3 if the last card added to the previously played cards to equal 15 is the last card in either player's hand,
+2 if the card played makes the sum of the cards played to that period in time equal to 15,
+2 if a cards is played by a player that matches or pairs the denomination of opponent's last played card,
+6 for triplets or pairs royal, the triplets can be made by another player which plays his card of the same denomination on a pair of cards which resulted from opponent's latest play,
+12 for playing a card which results in four of a kind, double pairs or double pairs royal, each card having been played consecutively by both players in their respective turns,
+3 for a sequence or run even if the sequence or run is not played in numerical sequence such that the three cards played in sequence can be arranged so that they are a run and in this case +1 point for each additional sequential card which is played either by the same player or his opponent.
This brief list does not include such scoring rules as "Muggins" where a player, who neglects to score the full value of his hand, loses the points he should have properly scored to the player who identifies the error various permutations of the list noted above. Not to mention the impossible hands of 19, 25, 26 or 27. Additionally, cribbage is a very fast-paced game such that it is usually played by two players having 4 cards per hand completing an entire game in as few as 3-4 hands.
Over time each multiple player card game has developed a scoring sheet and/or a game board which helps to reduce confusion and the possibility of errors in game scoring and recording. For example, in the game of cribbage, mental calculations are required in order to determine a player's scores throughout the game. These scores in turn are recorded on what is commonly known as a cribbage board. Cribbage boards are typically mechanical "pull-up" boards designed with multiple tracks or lanes whereby each player is allocated a single or group of lanes. These lanes are a series of holes in the cribbage board surface into which pegs are inserted as a method of recording a player's score. By inserting pegs into the holes in the lanes, the player does not have to mentally retain his game score, and each player can easily visually evaluate his game position relative to his opponent by a brief glance at the game board and the peg positions thereon.
Typically a cribbage board provides 60 holes per player plus a start and finish hole for each. While a full length game requires 121 points to win, alternative games of cribbage require only 61 holes and therefore cribbage boards have been designed with 60 holes and a marker which indicates that a player, involved in a 121 point game, is on his second trip around his 60 hole scoring lane.
Due to the scoring characteristics of the card games mentioned above, each game may have scores which are invalid. If an invalid score is included in a player's game scoring much confusion and error is likely to arise. For example, in cribbage the scores of 19, 25, 26, 27 and greater than 29 are invalid scores and as such should never be included in a player's game score. However, under the mentally rigorous exercises of strategizing and restrategizing throughout a card game, the tedious scoring calculations during and after the game are prone to error such as incorrect addition or subtraction of numbers and transposition of numbers.
Additionally, many of these games have traditional penalties for extremely low scores or for losing by certain margins. A good illustration of this is found in cribbage, whereby when a player loses by more than 31 points but less than 61 points, he is termed "skunked". This penalty is progressively tallied, based upon the extent of the player's loss. For example, when a player loses by more than 61 but less than 91 points, he is termed "double skunked", and further, a player is "triple skunked" when he loses by more than 91 but less than 121 points.
As many of the above-mentioned card games have been developed over a long period of time, their traditions have become an integral part of the game play as well as a reward of the game play. Cribbage boards have been developed over a long period of time and as such, the traditional cribbage board layout provides for rapid indoctrination of new players by experienced players. Further, as in the case of "skunking", the penalties of these games have become engrained in the experienced players and will continue to be a traditional part of the game.
In order to reduce the possibility of error and ease the scoring of the game, many advancements have been made to improve card game scoring devices. Such an improvement was advanced by the electronic scoring device of Meday U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,323. Generally, Meday shows a device which is particularly well suited to bridge, providing score entering means and display means. However, this device merely eliminates the need for mental or pencil and paper calculations, by providing electronically recorded and displayed game scores.
A scoring device shown by Rintoul, U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,216, provides an electronic cribbage board with a common hand count display and a selected entry to respective sets of game score indicators. This device provides the advantage over Meday in that it also provides an electronic version of the traditional cribbage board layout whereby the pegs in the cribbage board lanes are lights which are automatically advanced with respect to the score which is entered and maintained in the electronic scoring portion of the device.
While both of these devices minimize the need for tedious mental calculations, a problem with these devices is that they do not provide for selective rejection of inappropriate scores or correction of scores entered erroneously. Another problem with the prior art is that there is no provision for recording or presentation of traditional game penalties. Further, while Rintoul provides for a traditional game board representation, it does not provide for such penalties as single, double, or triple skunking.